WASHINGTON (AP) – Along with daylight saving time, this weekend could raise some more serious bank balances for some Americans.
Officials from the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service said on Friday that the processing of the new round of stimulus payments has already begun, with the aim of the first payments starting to appear in bank accounts this week. week.
President Joe Biden signed the new $ 1.9 trillion bailout package on Thursday, the day after he won the final step in the House. The measure provides for payments to eligible individuals up to $ 1,400, with payments to a family of four for $ 5,600.
“Payments will be delivered automatically to taxpayers, even as long as the IRS continues to deliver tax returns regularly,” IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said in a statement.
It is estimated that 85% of Americans will be eligible for payments and the goal is for millions of payments to be disbursed in the coming weeks.
The relief measure, which passed votes from the party line, in both the House and Senate, contains the third round of payments for economic impact. The first round approved last spring provided up to $ 2,000 per person and a second round of payments in December provided up to $ 600 per person.
The last package passed without votes from Republicans, who opposed the size of the measure and argued it was not necessary, given signs that the economy is beginning to recover.
Then-President Donald Trump considered the $ 900 billion relief bill payments approved in December to be too small and Biden agreed, pushing an individual’s total to $ 1,400 in the new package.
The latest round of relief payments will provide households with $ 1,400 for each adult, child and dependent adult, such as college students or elderly relatives. Dependent adults were not eligible to receive payments in the previous two rounds of payments.
Payments begin to decrease for one person once adjusted gross income exceeds $ 75,000 and go to zero once income reaches $ 80,000. Payment begins to decline for married couples when income exceeds $ 150,000 and goes from zero to $ 160,000.
Officials said starting Monday, people can check out the “Get My Payment” tool on the IRS.gov website to keep track of their own payments.
Taxpayers who have provided bank information with the IRS will receive direct income, while others will receive paper checks or debit cards in the mail.
Officials said that, in the interest of speeding up relief payments, the IRS will use the latest tax return available, either the 2019 return filed last year or the 2020 return that is filed. ‘must be delivered by April 15th.
If a person’s employment situation changed last year due to the pandemic, which caused millions of people to lose jobs or be forced to work part-time, officials said the IRS will adjust the size of the new impact payments after the 2020 return has been filed and provide an additional payment if required. Officials said these adjustments will be made automatically by the IRS for people who have already filed their 2020 return.
Officials said they wanted to manage payments this way instead of waiting for the filing of the 2020 tax return in order to speed up payments to taxpayers.